I nice quiet week, lots of schooling and playing outdoors in the beautiful warm spring air. Not good for Momma's allergies, though :(
Bible
Again reading each day through the New Testament stories. I need to look ahead, but we might be at the Resurrection story by Easter;) That would be awesome. And I mention this each week... but I love that we spend the time to talk about the stories too and try to apply them! THAT is the best part of our time together!
Last week we read one story about the woman accused of adultery and those trying to see if Jesus would uphold the punishment of Moses to stone the woman. We went from how stoning was how they punished someone in the OT, how God requires purity, how Jesus can forgive sins to how we should show grace since we also are guilty without Christ.
And it seems like each story has something we learn about Christ, ourselves and our need for Him. I really want to have this fabulous and fancy curriculum for everything, including our devotion times... but it's soo sweet to keep it simple and make the conversations count... not filling in blanks or having something profound to share each week:) I'm learning;)
Language Arts
They all completed 3 Grammar lessons, but we did a few detours this week... isn't it great:)
The first "detour" was to use our Grammar time to write letters to thank the gentleman who lead our field trip the previous week. They worried a bit about what to write but once they got started it was great. They dictated their letters to me, I wrote their dictation on the wipe boards. We made corrections were needed and then they copied their letters;)
The second "detour" was when Chris and Lydia's Grammar lesson was to write their address. We took the time to make "licenses" with our new address using extra prints from Christmas to put their pictures on them.
Since we were practicing the new address, Anna also joined in;)
The kids weren't satisfied with just their picture, address and name. So we also included their height (measured), weight, birthday :)
I think we make these at least once a year!! But the kids love to make them and I think it's great they get the address practice as well as how to measure these components and the units of measuring terms (pounds, feet, inches,etc).
Oh, mine are never elaborate... very simple! But no pictures since they contain a LOT of information:)
Finally, Lydia and reading;) ALmost daily Lydia has been reading from Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading... I.love.this.book!! But I really wanted her to have "spelling" too! My solution was to start using 1+1+1=1's You Can Read! It's sight word based early reading units. Lydia has just thrived with these units. She will be on her LAST unit this week and it's been very useful to us. I love using phonics to teach them to read, but sight words exist too and learning them makes it a LOT easier to read when you are just starting out!! And they are super cute, too!!
Math
Since we had 5 days straight of school, each child completed at least 4 days (I stretch out assessment days, letting them take the test one day and the lesson and fact sheets the following day.... no rush!).
One of our "need to work on" is math facts!! It seems like they are eager to learn them and they pick them up so quickly that it bores them to practice....
and then they forget. Or loose the ability to do it mentally. I'm hoping that once we finish our math books we can work diligently on math facts for the summer!! Having a background in high school math, I KNOW the importance of having those basic facts KNOWN!!
Anna learned her multiplying 9 facts this week;) I know I'm nerdy.... but it was soo fun teaching her the "9 Trick"!!
A fun activity this week was Chris having to measure the weight of common objects using marbles. The directions said inch tiles, but we don't have any of those so we improvised:)
History
During the beginning of the week we read about the making of the US Constitution and the organization of the government into three branches. Besides reading our history book we also started the book Shh!! We're Writing the COnstitution by Jean Fritz .
At naps and an evening or two, we read Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. It's a humorous view (and not so realistic) of Benjamin Franklin supposedly told by his wise mouse. Again, with most longer books, I didn't think the kids were enjoyed it. After a few nights reading it I told them it was our last night reading it... LOL... the kids begged to read more and more until we finished!
Science
We've been working on our Science projects this week. One afternoon we planned the layout of our projects. The Science Fair is the Thursday before Easter.
We also read through a teeth book or two as part of Anna's project. The kids all listened and participated. The favorite book was I Know Why I Brush My Teeth by Kate Rowan. It was very informative... but a little silly in my opinion;)
Tot In the School Room
We're linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and
Bible
Again reading each day through the New Testament stories. I need to look ahead, but we might be at the Resurrection story by Easter;) That would be awesome. And I mention this each week... but I love that we spend the time to talk about the stories too and try to apply them! THAT is the best part of our time together!
Last week we read one story about the woman accused of adultery and those trying to see if Jesus would uphold the punishment of Moses to stone the woman. We went from how stoning was how they punished someone in the OT, how God requires purity, how Jesus can forgive sins to how we should show grace since we also are guilty without Christ.
And it seems like each story has something we learn about Christ, ourselves and our need for Him. I really want to have this fabulous and fancy curriculum for everything, including our devotion times... but it's soo sweet to keep it simple and make the conversations count... not filling in blanks or having something profound to share each week:) I'm learning;)
Language Arts
They all completed 3 Grammar lessons, but we did a few detours this week... isn't it great:)
The first "detour" was to use our Grammar time to write letters to thank the gentleman who lead our field trip the previous week. They worried a bit about what to write but once they got started it was great. They dictated their letters to me, I wrote their dictation on the wipe boards. We made corrections were needed and then they copied their letters;)
 |
| Chris' letter was cute... you can see the note here |
The second "detour" was when Chris and Lydia's Grammar lesson was to write their address. We took the time to make "licenses" with our new address using extra prints from Christmas to put their pictures on them.Since we were practicing the new address, Anna also joined in;)
The kids weren't satisfied with just their picture, address and name. So we also included their height (measured), weight, birthday :)
I think we make these at least once a year!! But the kids love to make them and I think it's great they get the address practice as well as how to measure these components and the units of measuring terms (pounds, feet, inches,etc).
Oh, mine are never elaborate... very simple! But no pictures since they contain a LOT of information:)
Finally, Lydia and reading;) ALmost daily Lydia has been reading from Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading... I.love.this.book!! But I really wanted her to have "spelling" too! My solution was to start using 1+1+1=1's You Can Read! It's sight word based early reading units. Lydia has just thrived with these units. She will be on her LAST unit this week and it's been very useful to us. I love using phonics to teach them to read, but sight words exist too and learning them makes it a LOT easier to read when you are just starting out!! And they are super cute, too!!
Math
Since we had 5 days straight of school, each child completed at least 4 days (I stretch out assessment days, letting them take the test one day and the lesson and fact sheets the following day.... no rush!).One of our "need to work on" is math facts!! It seems like they are eager to learn them and they pick them up so quickly that it bores them to practice....
and then they forget. Or loose the ability to do it mentally. I'm hoping that once we finish our math books we can work diligently on math facts for the summer!! Having a background in high school math, I KNOW the importance of having those basic facts KNOWN!!
Anna learned her multiplying 9 facts this week;) I know I'm nerdy.... but it was soo fun teaching her the "9 Trick"!!
History
During the beginning of the week we read about the making of the US Constitution and the organization of the government into three branches. Besides reading our history book we also started the book Shh!! We're Writing the COnstitution by Jean Fritz .
Our activity book included making a diagram with the three branches and their job and names. The kids glued and put them together:) But after quizzing them with Daddy, we realized we have to do a little more reviewing :)
We also colored in the 13 Colonies! I love including some map work (geography) into our history lessons!
This week the kids and I spent time learning more about Benjamin Franklin. We spent two afternoons reading and they spent some time drawing pictures of things Benjamin Franklin was known for.
 |
| The bottom right picture is from Ben and Me, a story we read. Benjamin Franklin keeps his mouse in his hat! |
At naps and an evening or two, we read Ben and Me by Robert Lawson. It's a humorous view (and not so realistic) of Benjamin Franklin supposedly told by his wise mouse. Again, with most longer books, I didn't think the kids were enjoyed it. After a few nights reading it I told them it was our last night reading it... LOL... the kids begged to read more and more until we finished!
Science
We've been working on our Science projects this week. One afternoon we planned the layout of our projects. The Science Fair is the Thursday before Easter.
We also read through a teeth book or two as part of Anna's project. The kids all listened and participated. The favorite book was I Know Why I Brush My Teeth by Kate Rowan. It was very informative... but a little silly in my opinion;)
Tot In the School Room
We're linking up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and
2 comments:
So fun! Great idea to have them write thank you notes. I bought a dry erase board for Abby this past weekend and she loves it!
Very impressive week's work! I am so proud of all these wonderful students.
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